Published 7:00 pm, Monday, December 13, 2004

Bullock Creek's Darren Kalina is a football coach through and through.

Just recently, he received word that he has been named the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year for Division 5. So, what was he most excited about?

The upcoming awards banquet?

The commemorative plaque?

No, just the chance to talk football with his fellow coaches.

"Anytime you can talk about football and get into detail and the X's and O's, that's pretty neat," said Kalina, referring to a clinic he will give during the MHSFCA convention in Battle Creek Jan. 26-27.

During the clinic, Kalina will be speaking on his Lancers' wing-T offense - an offense which shredded opponents for over 3,000 rushing yards and a first-ever trip to the state final.

Creek's crisp execution of that offense, despite the fact that the Lancers were outsized by nearly every opponent week after week, had a lot to do with Kalina's earning the MHSFCA Coach of the Year Award, according to Clare coach Kelly Luplow.

"He certainly beat some awfully good teams to get to the state finals," said Luplow, a member of the MHSFCA Board of Directors who voted for Kalina. " … It was just a multitude of things (that earned him the award), including the size of his team.

"To go to the finals with a team that's that small and quick is something," Luplow added. "You see a lot of teams that are big and quick get to the state finals, but it's not often that a team that's small and quick gets there."

The Coach of the Year awards for all eight divisions are voted on by 32 MHSFCA directors representing 16 regions throughout the state. Nominations are first made by representatives in each region before being voted on by the full board.

"We really push the guys in our region, and we want our guys to be represented as much as possible," Luplow noted.

The fact that the award is voted upon by his peers makes it special, Kalina said.

"Getting the award from football coaches is nice, because those guys (from your region) … push and pull for you and say what they have to say," Kalina said. "The guys in my region must've felt like we played pretty good football."

Pretty good football, indeed.

This fall, the Lancers claimed their first outright Tri-Valley Conference West championship, and won their first 13 games before finally losing 13-0 to Jackson Lumen Christi in the Division 5 final.

Along the way, Kalina was named TVC West Coach of the Year, Regional Coach of the Year, Midland Daily News Coach of the Year, and even Detroit Lions Coach of the Week.

Now that he has added the highest honor of all to his resumé, Kalina is still taking it all in stride.

"I receive the award, but it's a direct reflection of how the kids play," he noted.

How they played, of course, was hard-nosed, passionate, and full-speed-ahead - a fact that won the Lancers not only a lot of fans but also the respect of coaches from around the state.

"A lot of coaches have called and told me that they were mostly impressed by how hard our kids played," Kalina said. "Our style of football - a lot of old-timers still like that. There are still a lot of people out there who like the style of football we play, and I guess that's reaffirming.

"I don't know any other way to coach," he added. "This is the system I believe in and the system I know. If I tried coaching any other way, I'd be fooling myself and the kids."

Interestingly, Kalina is the only MHSFCA Coach of the Year in eight divisions not to have won a state championship this year. The fact that Lumen Christi coach Herb Brogan has already won a number of state titles and Coach of the Year honors may have swayed voters in Kalina's favor, Luplow said.

"That might've had some bearing on it," Luplow said, while adding, " … But I think that the Bullock Creek program and what it has accomplished this year and being so new (to state title runs) also had something to do with it, whereas Lumen Christi is there all the time and there's sort of an expectation for them to be there (in the state final)."

Whatever the case, Kalina was both gracious and humble in talking about the award. He said he feels as though he is representing a lot of smaller programs in his region who have never had the opportunity to play for a state championship.

"Any coach at a school our size knows it's hard to develop a program," he said. "It takes a little time, and you've got to weather the storm. It's a good feeling to know we've improved every single year and that what we're teaching the kids is successful.

"I'm not the only guy in the state to (turn a program around)," he added. "There are tons of coaches out there who are very capable of winning this award."

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Kalina will conduct his offensive clinic at the MHSFCA convention on Jan. 26 and receive his Coach of the Year plaque at a banquet on Jan. 27.